PwC Partners in the UK received an average partner reward of over one million pounds for the first time in 2021. This is mainly due to rising advisory turnover and the divestment of some activities.

British media, upon reaching the million pound mark, speak of “the start of a new season of terrific revenue for the big four accounting firms”. But PwC is tempering expectations and warning of inflation and rising salaries, which may lower Partner Pay in the coming year.

The firm last month offered a large proportion of its 24,000 UK employees pay increases of nine per cent or more, in order to attract and retain good staff in the UK’s difficult labour market.

The wage increase should also compensate employees for the sharply increased inflation. PwC’s UK Chairman Kevin Ellis expects average partner income to fall again next year.

Revenues for PwC’s 995 partners in the UK and the Middle East rose to an average of £ 1,025,000. Last year it averaged 868 thousand pounds. The top partners earned significantly more.

In addition to an amount of £ 920,000 in partner remuneration, an extra of an average of £ 105,000 per partner comes from the sale of the mobility branch, a consulting practice aimed at companies with many internationally relocating employees.

The turnover from consulting services also grew by 33 percent, with which the consulting branch exceeded the turnover of the audit practice. When asked about the vision for the proposed split of EY’s audit and advisory practices, Ellis emphasized that PwC remains committed to the multidisciplinary organization. In total, PwC UK achieved sales of five billion pounds for the first time last financial year, of which one billion in the Middle East.

Last year, PwC was fined nearly seven million euros for failing controls at three British listed companies. According to chairman Ellis, PwC has invested in improving audit quality, but “there will always be human errors; we sign four thousand audits a year”.